How do I get company's central contacts to show in OWA?

Question

During summer 2013 we shifted from SBS 2008 (Exchange 2007 which worked great but just constantly bottle-necked) to Windows 2012 with Exchange 2013. The migration seemed have gone well but when users went to access the company's public folders, mainly the
central contact database (a Public Contacts folder) via OWA and Outlook 2011 for Mac, they were able to access them. The only contacts that showed was their local contacts and the Directory which I can't seem to update at all.
Is there a way for me to get the users access to the contacts database via OWA and Outlook 2011 for Mac?
I've tried the following so far:
* Created a new user mailbox, copied all the contact to the local contacts list and shared but didn't work.
* Manually updating contacts and then copying to individual users' local contacts
* Directory contacts only show the name and email address and no other info which is a huge problem for the organization.
* When I access the Public Contacts folder via a PC, I have full access but when I update contacts, they either don't show or don't update in the directory in OWA under People.
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!
TDWIL

Answer 1

Hi TDWIL,
I am not quite sure about the “central contacts” you mentioned in your post. Please confirm whether the issue is the Global Address Book cannot update or users cannot access public folders.
In my Exchange 2013 CU1 environment, I access OWA and switch to People pane. There are many folders listed in Directory: All Rooms, All Users, All Groups, All Contacts, new, Public Folders. And I can click Directory to get all mailboxes in my Exchange environment.
Directory contacts only show the name and email address. But after I set the user organization information in AD, it works and shows other information.
If the issue is about GAL updates, please try running the following command to
Update a Global Address List:
Update-GlobalAddressList -Identity "Default Global Address List"
Note: Running this command only starts the update process. It may take several hours for the GAL to be updated.
If the issue is that users cannot access public folders, Please check whether the
public folder permission is configured properly and the
public folder migration from Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2013.
Thanks,
Winnie Liang
TechNet Community Support